Green transformation of the dairy industry under the "dual carbon" goal

Our reporter Han Songyan Jiang Mei

Global warming, glacier melting, frequent droughts and floods, and the increasing impact of excessive carbon dioxide emissions, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and exploring a green and sustainable development model have become the consensus
of all mankind.
At last year's Global Climate Ambition Summit, the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a global "climate emergency"
.
China has written green and sustainable development into the "14th Five-Year Plan", clearly proposing to accelerate the promotion of green and low-carbon development, and strive to achieve "carbon peak" in 2030 and "carbon neutrality"
in 2060.
The "double carbon" goal proposed by the state has received a positive response from the dairy industry, and when the reporter interviewed at the 27th annual meeting of the China Dairy Industry Association held recently, the most impressive hot words were "double carbon", "green" and "sustainable", and many dairy enterprises and upstream and downstream industrial chain enterprises are making unremitting efforts
to achieve the "double carbon" goal.

Aquaculture has a large carbon footprint

Control the source to achieve green transformation

Some experts calculate that a high-yielding cow emits about the same
greenhouse gas emissions a year as a 1.
0-emission car.
What is the relationship between the achievement of the "dual carbon" goal and the dairy industry chain? Li Shengli, chief scientist of the national dairy industry technology system and professor at China Agricultural University, said that the carbon footprint runs through the entire dairy industry chain, from the breeding end, the processing end to the market end
.
Data show that China's carbon emissions per kilogram of milk can reach about two kilograms, which is about three times
the carbon emissions produced per kilogram of milk produced in New Zealand.

Li Shengli calculated that raising a cow emits the same amount of exhaust gas as two beef cattle, 14 sheep, 22 goats, and 74 pigs, and if the world's cattle form a "cattle country", its total annual carbon emissions will be second only to the United States and China, reaching about 5 billion tons
.

"In the supply chain of various livestock products, carbon emissions mainly come from farming
.
" Li Shengli said that the emission reduction of China's dairy industry should first pay attention to the reduction of methane fermented in the enter, and animal breeding, nutritional regulation and other measures
can be used.
"Genetic breeding is carried out by selecting some animals with low rumen methane to achieve the goal of
reducing methane emissions.
It can also improve the utilization rate through the processing and manufacturing of feed, and inhibit the production
of methane through additives.
Improving the yield of dairy cows and improving the level of division of labor management of pastures can also achieve the purpose
of carbon emission reduction.
”

In fact, many leading dairy companies have taken the initiative to assume social responsibility and started emission reduction actions
upstream in the industry.
Zhang Qi, director of sustainable development of Nestlé (China) Co.
, Ltd.
, introduced that as early as 2012, Nestlé invested in the construction of a dairy breeding training center in Heilongjiang Shuangcheng to train dairy farmers to improve their technical and pasture management capabilities, and proposed 9 specific measures to increase the yield of dairy cows in pastures by 40-45 kg, improve milk composition through feed optimization, optimize the structure of lactating cattle, and optimize soil carbon sequestration to provide guarantee
for the breeding end to achieve "carbon neutrality" 。 Qiao Hanbin, development manager of FrieslandCampina Dairy at Royal FrieslandCampina of the Netherlands, said that as the largest dairy farmer cooperative in the Netherlands, FrieslandCampina's first step in carbon emission reduction in the dairy farming industry is quantitative monitoring, and forming a community of interests with dairy farmers and pastures is a guarantee
for continuous emission reduction.

"For example, on a farm with 900 cattle and an original yield of 7.
3 tonnes, increasing milk production to 9 tonnes would reduce carbon production by 22.
6% per kilogram of milk; If the ratio is appropriately increased, carbon emissions will be reduced by another 10.
5%; If the proportion of adult cows is increased, carbon emissions are reduced by 22.
2%; After reducing natural stacking, carbon emissions can continue to be reduced by 11.
1%.

Li Shengli said that with the improvement of production efficiency, the carbon emissions of milk can be further reduced
.
He suggested establishing a standard methodology to capture first-hand carbon emissions data on China's dairy industry by focusing on the carbon footprint of large farms; Improve the accuracy of pasture nutrition supply, further promote innovative manure treatment methods, develop additives that regulate rumen fermentation function to reduce carbon emissions, and use new green energy to complete the carbon neutrality path
of farming.

Wei Lin, director of the Dairy Division of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, also put forward the suggestion of "further improving the
production performance of dairy cows and vigorously promoting green breeding technology".
According to different breeding modes, formulate different feeding standards, technical specifications and management specifications to improve the standardized production level of
pastures.
Optimize the regional layout of milk sources, promote the matching connection between dairy breeding volume and forage planting scale, and improve the development system
of breeding cycle.
Strengthen the technology research and development supply chain, strengthen energy conservation and emission reduction technology research, and realize the reduction of energy conservation and emission of farms and the utilization of resources
.

Coordinated carbon reduction of the entire industry chain

Create a new engine for high-quality development of the dairy industry

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's production and construction have undergone historic changes, but the transformation of China's green production and lifestyle has not yet been completed, the task of achieving "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" is very arduous, the efficiency of energy and resource utilization and the level of green technology are generally not high, and the policies and systems for promoting green development need to be improved
.

The 14th Five-Year Plan and the 2035 Long-term Goals outline clearly state that we should accelerate the promotion of green and low-carbon development, continuously improve environmental quality, enhance ecosystem quality and stability, and comprehensively improve resource utilization efficiency
.
Ma Rong, former deputy director of the Department of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection of the National Development and Reform Commission, said: "Green and sustainable development is a topic of global concern and a new engine
for China to achieve high-quality development.
She said that it is necessary to consider the carbon reduction potential of the entire industry chain, adopt waste reduction and carbon reduction technology and technology in the upstream and downstream of the entire industry chain, and achieve win-win
cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises.

"Looking at the world, the era of fossil energy is coming to an end, and mankind is moving towards a zero-carbon ecological civilization
.
" Wei Wei, vice president of Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy (Group) Co.
, Ltd.
, said that China will become the leader of zero-carbon ecological civilization, and the green and low-carbon transformation of the dairy industry is imperative, so it must drive the entire industry chain to achieve "carbon neutrality"
.
She introduced that Mengniu has established a three-tier management structure
of "group-division-factory".
In July this year, Mengniu's Shengmu took the lead in launching the "carbon neutrality" project, including carbon inventory
in the livestock sector.
Wei Wei said that Mengniu will cooperate with the Ningxia Lingwu municipal government, energy enterprises and 10 animal husbandry companies to launch a low-carbon pasture breeding project and build the Lingwu standardized breeding base into the first "carbon neutral" dairy farming demonstration area
in China.
”

Since 2010, Yili has set up an internal carbon management team to carry out carbon inventory for 12 consecutive years, and on the basis of understanding its own carbon emission "background", it has carried out targeted and efficient energy conservation and emission reduction and energy consumption management
.
In 2020 alone, Yili reduced carbon emissions by 580,000 tons
.
Up to now, Yili has reduced carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 6.
51 million tons, equivalent to saving 10.
7 billion kWh of electricity
.
Looking back on past experience, Wang Yuejun, deputy director of EHS (Environmental Environment, Health and Safety Safety) of Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co.
, Ltd.
, believes that a sound organizational structure and clear responsibility positioning are the cornerstones of sustainable development governance mechanism and the realization of the "dual carbon" goal
.

In terms of dairy production equipment technology innovation, Sun Jicheng, Vice President of Technical Services, Tetra Pak Greater China, introduced that Tetra Pak's end-to-end production line for factory pre-treatment and package filling is committed to three 50% goals, that is, reducing water consumption, waste emissions by 50% and CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 from 2019 as a benchmark, in order to support dairy companies to achieve their sustainability strategic goals
。 At the same time, Tetra Pak continues to focus on sustainable packaging, and in addition to continuing to promote paper-based packaging products, in 2020, Tetra Pak became the first company in the food and beverage industry to offer packaging containing Bonsucro-certified plant-based polymers, and this year launched China's first plant-based dream cap.

In front of the Tetra Pak booth at the 2021 China (International) Dairy Technology Expo, the person in charge told reporters that the raw material for this plant-based bottle cap is derived from sugarcane
in a large plantation in southeastern Brazil, far from the rainforest.
During the growth process, sugarcane itself absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and after harvesting, sugarcane juice is squeezed to produce ethanol
after fermentation and distillation.
The characteristics of ethanol dehydration into ethylene and then polymerization into polyethylene are no different from those of general polyethylene, and can also be recycled and reused
through existing recycling systems.
At present, this plant-based bottle cap is first launched
in China by Jindian Organic Milk.
Although only Brazilian sugarcane currently meets the raw material requirements and there are still certain limitations in supply, Tetra Pak said: "Green development is a major trend, and I believe that China's sugarcane will soon be able to pass the standard certification, so that consumers can use plant-based bottle caps
made from domestic sugarcane.
" ”

At the 2021 China (International) Dairy Technology Expo, the natural paper packaging brought by Jinan Quanhua Packaging Products Co.
, Ltd.
attracted a lot of attention
.
According to the on-site staff, this natural color paper packaging has zero bleaching, zero addition, environmental protection and degradability, and its cost is basically the same as that of ordinary PE roof boxes, which is favored
by many leading dairy companies.

According to the survey, in recent years, public acceptance of low-carbon consumption has increased, with 45% of consumers inclined to buy low-carbon products and more than one-third willing to pay a premium
of more than 25%.
However, on the channel side, there is a lack of products and channels for consumers to choose, low market recognition, and insufficient product research and development motivation
.
Wang Wenhua, Director General of the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable of the China Chain Store and Franchise Association, said that the China Chain Store and Franchise Association will link enterprises, scientific research institutions, schools and suppliers to promote the establishment of a low-carbon development path research and product low-carbon information sharing mechanism for the retail industry, promote the chain industry to establish a consensus on low-carbon development, reduce carbon emissions through improved operation strategies, promote the construction of low-carbon supply chains, and drive low-carbon consumption
of consumers.

How to deal with post-consumer dairy packaging is more conducive to low-carbon development? Yang Jun, general manager of Hangzhou Fulun Ecological Technology Co.
, Ltd.
, introduced that Fulun Company has realized the resource utilization of dairy packaging by building high-quality recycling channels, establishing a waste packaging recycling system, and building a big data cloud platform for renewable resource recycling management, and forming a closed loop
of green and low-carbon circular development of dairy products throughout the life cycle.
In 2017, Fulun recycled 90,000 tons of paper-plastic aluminum composite packaging, saving more than 600 acres of land
compared to direct landfill.
However, at present, it is becoming more and more difficult
to recycle paper-plastic aluminum composite packaging.
Yang Jun said frankly that in recent years, due to the rise in recycling costs caused by the rise in recycling scrap prices, the price decline caused by the fluctuation of oil prices of recycled plastics, and the lack of raw materials, the development of the paper-plastic aluminum composite packaging recycling industry is limited, and government policy support is urgently needed
.

Ma Rong said that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China's ecological civilization has entered a strategic direction focusing on carbon reduction, promoting the synergy of carbon reduction and pollution reduction, promoting the comprehensive green transformation of the economy and society, and realizing the critical period of improving the quality of the ecological environment from quantitative change to qualitative change.

Liu Chao, vice chairman and executive deputy secretary-general of the China Dairy Industry Association, also said that standing at a new historical node and facing a new stage of development, as an important industry related to the national economy and people's livelihood, China's dairy industry must not only continue to implement the green development strategy in depth and unswervingly take the road of green, low-carbon and sustainable development, but also need to actively take action to contribute to the realization of the national "dual carbon" goal
.

China Food News (2021.
09.
29.
01 Edition).

(Editor: Gu Yufei)